Kevin J. Flint

Testing Times: Questions concerning assessment for school improvement

Contemporary education now appears to be dominated by the continual drive for improvement measured against the assessment of what students have learned. It is our contention that a foundational relation with assessment organises contemporary education. Here we draw on a ‘way of thinking’ that is deconstructive in its intent. Such thinking makes clear the vicious circularity of the argument for improvement, wherein assessment valorised in discourses of improvement provides not only a rationalisation for improvement via assessment, but also the very means of achieving such possibilities via targets grounded in limited specifications of assessment. On reading Heideggers ‘question concerning technology’ we sought to reconsider the vicious circle of improvement in relation to Being. We claim that the means‐ends driven technology of assessment, rather than being at our disposal and under our control, only serves to reveals the Real to us in accordance with the restricting principle of reason. The principle of reason, we argue, grounds ‘Enframing’ that ranks and orders the very beings of education as objects to produce an objective ‘world as picture’, rather than opening the possibility of their identity as belongings with a movement of difference. So, ‘improvement’ becomes normative and binding for institutions and practices on grounds of the principle of assessment, and renders agents of education as functionaries of ‘Enframing’.

Deconstructing workplace “know how” and “tacit knowledge”: Exploring the temporal play of being within professional practice

Purpose – Over the past two decades across a number of sectors of the economy there has been an ever increased interest in attempting to understand the mediation of “tacit knowledge” in developing professional expertise. Much thought has been invested in studies which attempt to resolve the difficulty of revealing tacit knowledge and finding ways of transferring it within institutions and across organisations. But, in general these recent studies, and the approaches they have adopted, do not take sufficient account of the phenomenology of human being, Dasein, which is essentially temporal: the purpose of this paper is to address this issue.Design/methodology/approach – The approach here is based on a phenomenological and deconstructive study of two small–scale comparative cases of the mediation of tacit knowledge in the development of professional expertise in Higher Education, within the context of social practice and educational practice. The cases will each serve to provide a focus upon professional ex...

A Derridaean reading of the zone of proximal development (ZPD): the monster in the play of différance

The institutional machine of contemporary activity theory currently appears to be constrained by centring on the structure of mediated activity first voiced by Vygotsky. As a centring, such a principle, it is argued, continually restores the equilibrium of the institutional machine in alignment with its possible development in the polysemy of thematization. And, ironically, in this machine Vygotsky’s play as a leading activity is reduced to the work of signs. This study draws on a way of thinking that is deconstructive in its intent. From the writings of Jacques Derrida the paper begins to explore the future of the language of Vygotsky’s play in terms of Derrida’s play of différance. In relation to the structure of language, significant questions remain. One concerns any possible openness and hospitality given to this structure. The other relates to the on‐going arrival of the monster arrivant, the future, as opposed to the technological aporia of development as a programmable tomorrow.

Nothing changes: perceptions of vocational education in England

This paper explores young people’s perceptions of vocational education and training (VET) in England. It draws on interview and focus-group data from a funded project. Parallel studies were carried out in The Netherlands, South Africa and England. This study reports on the English project. It found that serendipity, contingent events and influence of significant others are most influential in choice of vocational programme and that young peoples’ understandings of possible career paths vary in sophistication, differentiated by age, programme level and subject area. Perceived attractiveness of VET was closely associated with societal perception of their programmes (which the young people considered to be negative). The paper considers the implications of these findings in the context of recent major policy initiatives in England. It concludes that, while some recent policy initiatives, such as the introduction of University Technical Colleges may be successful in raising the esteem of some forms of elite and specialized VET, broad vocational programmes at lower levels, and short courses associated with ‘employability’ and ‘re-engagement’, will continue to be held in lower esteem and to confer little educational advantage on those young people, largely drawn from working-class backgrounds, who pursue them.

The Language of Knowledge Generation in Practice

Over the past two decades across a number of sectors of the economy, there has been an increased interest in attempting to understand the mediation of ‘tacit knowledge’ in the development of professional expertise. Technically, there is very little account taken of the phenomenological ontology of Dasein (human being) at the workplace, which is essentially temporal, even though we are each conscious of such ontology.